I am a slacker and I PP everything in iPhoto because I shoot a lot of jpegs and iPhoto is simple and speedy and gets me much of the way there with PP.

I do it all by eye in iPhoto. I trust my eyes more than the numbers and the graphs and these days I have an idea of how i want the image to end up looking because I have done so many by eye with iPhoto now.

DOS Tip! (or OSX Tip) At least in the United States of America, Aperture3 is available now for US$79.99 from iTunes/App Store.

Strictly as a photo editor, Aperture is a superset (a super-superset) of iPhoto; and, as a DAM (digital asset manager), also known as an image database manager, it is far superior to iPhoto. Best of all, you can integrate your iPhoto libraries directly into Aperture, including your edits so far: there is no penalty for iPhoto users migratng to Aperture.

Yeah, I do know this, it is equally cheap here in the UK. I have upgraded to Mountain Lion which is version of the os you need for the shared iPhoto/Aperture library. All I have to do is buy the darn thing but you have inspired me to do it already. Thanks.